Chapter 13
Zayed watched as Tara stood in front of him, trembling, her chin wobbling with whatever terrible thoughts were flashing through her head.
“Tara, you’ve done nothing wrong,” he told her in as gentle a tone as possible. “You should know by now that I consider you to be a very valuable…member of my staff.” He looked up just in time to see Chaid’s eyes shift. Had the head of his security division just rolled his eyes?
Zayed made a mental note to speak with the man later.
Turning back to Tara, he stepped closer. “Tara, I ordered someone to go to your apartment yesterday. They discovered…” he stopped because he realized that Tara had stopped breathing. Tilting his head, he asked, “Do you already know what they found?”
“Was it…?” she asked, but her voice choked before she could utter the last part of her question.
“Your building manager unlocked the door for a man who claimed he was looking for his wife and that his wife lived in your apartment. There were two women with him, but they didn’t identify themselves. Do you know anything about someone married to a man from Kentucky? Isn’t that where you’re from?”
She swallowed and he saw tears fill her green eyes. “Yes, Your Highness. I’m from Kentucky. And yes, I know my husband is looking for me.”
Zayed heard the words, but he couldn’t process them in his brain. Husband? Tara was married? She had a husband that was searching for her?! But…Chaid had searched for her marriage certificate! There hadn’t been one!
He glanced over at his head of security, but he was equally stunned.
He stared at Tara, determined to get the whole story. Now! “You’re… married ?”
She stood very still, the only movement was a tear sliding down the left cheek and her chin trembling. Eventually, she nodded, closing her eyes, which caused more of her tears to leak out.
“Yes,” she whispered, her voice cracking with the admission.
Zayed still stared at her, stunned and…unexpectedly furious! He wanted to order her to divorce the bastard at once. Correction: he wanted to kill the man who had touched his Tara. His Tara! He would have sworn that she had feelings for him as well. But if she was married…?
What the hell kind of game was she playing?
“How long have you been married?” he rasped, trying to control his rage. He ignored Chaid who was muttering something into his radio.
Tara gripped the notebook so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She bowed her head and swallowed hard, obviously trying to control her emotions.
Finally, she lifted her head, but wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I’ve been married to Elijah Collins for…” she paused, biting her lips as she squeezed her eyelids tightly closed. When she opened them again, she took a small breath, then released it, lifting wet green eyes up to his. “I’ve been married for thirteen years, Your Highness.”
Zayed heard the words, but they didn’t make any sense. Thirteen years? Tara was only twenty-five years old. It was impossible that she’d been married for thirteen years.
Rubbing a frustrated hand over his face, he did the math in his brain. But the numbers still came out the same. “Tara, that’s not possible. You aren’t old enough to have been married for thirteen years. That would mean you were only…twelve when…!” He stopped when she simply stood there, tears streaming down her pale cheeks.
Chaid wasn’t as slow. He stepped forward, his eyes livid as he asked, “Ms. Treon, are you telling us that you were married when you were twelve years old?”
She nodded.
The silent nod was his undoing.
“Holy hell!” he muttered. Then he let lose a stream of epithets, turning away from Tara as he ran a hand through his hair, taking a few steps to process what she’d just said.
When he turned back to look at her, he shook his head. “The security team looked for a marriage license, Tara. And you never changed your name. How the hell were you married at twelve years old?”
That was a lot of questions all at once, but the most pertinent was if she was truly married. He couldn’t comprehend that his Tara had been married for thirteen years!
“Yes, I was married when I was twelve years old,” she whispered. “My father…” she paused to clear her throat, then lifted her chin and wiped impatiently at her tears. “My father made a deal with Elijah’s father. They agreed that a marriage between us would be beneficial to the community. Our farms were adjacent. My father only had daughters. So, he needed someone to inherit his farmland, since my sister or I couldn’t.” She paused, obviously trying to regain control. She started again, but she had to lower her gaze. “My father and our leaders agreed that Elijah was a good candidate to inherit the farm.”
There was a stunned silence. But it was Zayed who came closer, gripping her arms as he bent down, needing to look into her eyes to understand. “Are you telling me that some minister married you to a man at the age of twelve?”
She nodded, but didn’t audibly reply.
Zayed pulled her into his arms, cradling her gently as he stroked her back. “Honey, that’s not marriage, that’s pedophilia.”
She lifted her tear-drenched eyes up to his. “I’m…”
“No, habibi ,” he interrupted. “Marriage at the age of twelve is legal only in two countries that I know of. And the United States isn’t one of them.”
“But…!”
“Even in the United States, a child would have to be at least thirteen with parental consent to be legally married. And even then, you need to look at the individual state laws.”